Review Summary

"An American Haunting" is scary all right, but not for anyone in the audience. Nor does anything in it quake the boots of Rachel Hurd-Wood, who, in the role of Betsy Bell, pretends to be slapped around, moaned at and generally terrorized by an invisible ghost. No, the terror here is suffered exclusively by Donald Sutherland and Sissy Spacek; their participation can be explained only by some unfathomable deal with Satan. It is possible, given his hairdo, makeup and costuming, that Mr. Sutherland simply wandered over on his lunch break from "Pride and Prejudice" and was tricked into the role of John Bell Sr., patriarch of a beleaguered clan of 19th-century Tennesseans. After a land dispute with a neighbor ruins his reputation, John finds his house visited by a mysterious spirit with a penchant for pulling hair and knocking over furniture. Lucy (Ms. Spacek), his wife, is powerless to stop this supernatural silliness until, in the surprise denouement, she isn't. At which point "An American Haunting" exchanges bottom-barrel metaphysics for even cheaper psychology. — Nathan Lee